"No other software could handle our demands.Live video with effects, multi-format media... And we needed to be able to program the entire show so that it can be run by just one person with little training.

"PixelConduit + Stage Tools was perfect for the job.The cue list is great, and the realtime effects and color correction are out of this world."

PixelConduit is a free Mac application that can handle the most demanding video tasks. It does live video capture and realtime compositing with equal ease. (More info about PixelConduit)

Equipped with the Stage Tools add-on, PixelConduit becomes like a lighting console and video mixer for realtime effects and playback. Using a simple yet powerful cue list, practically everything in PixelConduit can be programmed to create show sequences. With Stage Tools, a single video operator can easily and reliably run a complex show with multiple video outputs and any combination of live and pre-recorded video.

The realtime rendering power of PixelConduit makes it a great platform for both video installations and effect visualizations. For the first time ever, the same toolset that you can use in post for film-quality visual effects can be also used for realtime video. Floating point color, advanced chroma keys, elegant film-like color correction looks, editable vector masks — it's all available live without compromises.

Powerful video shows often require many screens. PixelConduit is totally prepared to handle multiple projection images. There is built-in support for Matrox DualHead/TripleHead-To-Go Graphics Expansion Modules, which allows you to show three separate images from a single Mac laptop! PixelConduit's unique 'pipeline' user interface makes it very easy to direct images onto a particular screen — just drag a connection from a video source or effect. Need even more screens? Move up to a Mac Pro with multiple video cards and GXM units, and deliver up to 9 screens from a single computer.

Stage Tools also includes the tools you need to make projections look good in the installation space: scaling, cropping, perspective warps, individual color corrections with vector masks... Fully localized control over the image is possible.

For more comfortable live use, Stage Tools can be driven by external controller devices. There is a complete set of Play Control and Trigger tools, so you can easily make stuff happen — for example you can set up a clip to start whenever its fade-in slider is moved up, without doing any programming. Supported interfaces include MIDI and DMX512. (MIDI controller feedback is included so that motorized sliders on your controller will follow the actions within the Conduit user interface, e.g. reacting to animations in cues.)

Using scripting, you can make PixelConduit + Stage Tools do even more. Custom 2D/3D graphics and specialized user interfaces are easy to create with Conduit's integrated JavaScript environment. With Conduit's flexible graphical programming possibilities and the well-known standard JavaScript language, creating a custom live video application is now even simpler than making a web page.

We've placed a serious emphasis on stability to ensure that PixelConduit is up to the demands of large-scale video performances.

Curious to see how PixelConduit + Stage Tools are used in the real world to create complex shows and manage effect shoots? Check out Case Studies.